Critics worry that Frank's presence on the campaign team could undercut Simon's efforts to attract moderate voters in his race against Democrat Gray Davis.

Frank is "anti-abortion, anti-gun control, for (school) vouchers -- the real hard-line, right-wing slate," said Robert Larkin, a moderate GOP activist who has often squared off politically against Frank in Simi Valley (Ventura County), where both men reside.

"It's hard to see" how Frank can help Simon attract moderate voters, he said.

Simon campaign spokesman James Fisfis said criticism of Frank is off the mark.

"Steve Frank is an asset to this campaign -- he works hard and contributes a great deal," he said.

Simon's staff includes not just conservatives like Frank, Fisfis said, but moderate and liberal GOP activists as well -- reflecting Simon's ability to rally "the entire spectrum" of the party.

"He can't even relate to normal conservative Republicans, which I consider myself," she said. ". . . I'll tell you very sincerely that there are a ton of us who will not support Simon because of Steve Frank."

Frank's current role shows that Simon "has got an evangelical mentality," she asserted.

Chiodo and others point to the recent uproar over Frank's hiring of an activist from the anti-abortion, anti-gay rights Traditional Values Coalition to electioneer for Simon in the GOP primary.

Phil Sheldon, son of coalition founder the Rev. Lou Sheldon, distributed e- mails touting Simon as the candidate who would "undo four years of liberalism, homosexuality and anti-family values in California at the hands of Gov. Gray Davis," computer records show. After The Chronicle reported on the affair, Simon cut Sheldon loose.

In a brief interview, Frank said stories about him should note his volunteer work for the Girl Scouts, the Travelers Aid Society and other charities. He declined additional comment.

Bronx-born but raised in Southern California, Frank began a life of conservative activism as a schoolboy booster of the 1964 campaign of Barry Goldwater, according to published accounts.

He does political consulting, has twice run unsuccessfully for local office and also has been employed as a printing-supply salesman, he once told the Wall Street Journal.

And from 1992 through 1994, state records show, Frank worked as Sacramento advocate for an affiliate of the Church of Scientology, the applied religious philosophy founded by former science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.

On behalf of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, in Hollywood, Frank lobbied lawmakers on "the protection of religious liberties and a drug-free U. S.A," and on a bill that would have made it more difficult to sue churches for emotional distress, the records show. The measure never passed.

But inside California Republican politics, Frank is better known as a tireless, tough political strategist who, beginning in the 1980s, helped remake the party -- and drive many moderates from it -- by electing religious right activists to key posts on county and state committees.

Frank "was so far right, and it's either his way, or you don't belong in the Republican Party," she said. ". . . They used to call me an anti-Christian liberal, and I was secretary at the Presbyterian Church here for 26 years. . . . It made me very uncomfortable."

Frank, she said, was "divisive, that's why I was surprised that Simon hired him. I hope everything goes well."

At one point, they sought to remove the teaching of evolution from science classes, or augment it with Bible-based creationism, he said.

Weis said the effort foundered, in part because the board proved "way too right-wing for the average conservative American."

But for about a year, "every meeting, we had pickets. Every board meeting was standing-room-only in the room, with reporters and TV trucks outside," Weis said. "It was hell."

By 1998, Frank was serving as parliamentarian for the state GOP. At a September convention, he pushed to run the abortion rights group Republicans for Choice organization out of the party, according to interviews and press accounts.

He also pushed the party to oppose reconfirmation for Supreme Court Justices Ronald George and Ming Chin -- both appointed by Republican Gov. Pete Wilson -- because they had voted to overturn a law requiring teens to obtain parental consent for abortions.

By then, Frank also was president and driving force of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies, an organization that he hoped would turn the national party to the right in the wake of moderate U.S. Sen. Bob Dole's trouncing by Bill Clinton in 1996.

The organization's platform, posted on its Web site, advocates prayer in schools and opposes abortion, gun control and drafting women into the armed forces.

"The Constitution was written to govern a moral and religious people, and it is being destroyed by those who are neither," its bylaws state.

Frank has proved a tireless advocate for the organization, traveling to 44 states to set up chapters. In November 2000, he turned up in suburban Atlanta, where he capped a get-out-the-vote drive among opponents of gun-control by raffling off a $1,500 Benelli Super Black Eagle 12-gauge shotgun.

Gerard Hegstrom, then Democratic Party chairman in DeKalb County, dismissed the raffle as a "stunt" that failed to give Republicans traction in their attempt to unseat liberal Rep. Cynthia McKinney. Nevertheless, the event made headlines in the Southeast.

Frank has big dreams for the federation.

Its message to moderate Republicans, he told his hometown paper, the Ventura County Star, is: "We don't want a seat at the table. We want the table. "

The organization isn't nearly that influential, says John Pitney, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, but it does increase the pressure on GOP candidates to incorporate hard-line conservatives in their campaigns.